


a first snowfall

by beoluve



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Genre: :), Gen, Nagamas, Traveling, a jugdral fic with no violence? what is this, it's just them becoming friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21996325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beoluve/pseuds/beoluve
Summary: Olwen accompanies Tine as she travels to Silesse.
Collections: Nagamas Gifts





	a first snowfall

“Traveling in the cold season, marching across the desert. Fun times to be had.”

“Oh… Miss Olwen, if you’re having such a bad time, we can stop and rest a bit more?”

“No, I was just complaining for the sake of it.” Olwen shook her head apologetically. “I don’t… I don’t want to hold you up, Tine.”

“Please don’t think that! We’re partners until we reach our goal!” Tine grinned cheerfully, gripping the reigns of her horse tighter. 

“Well, if that’s the case, would it be okay if I made a request?”

“O-of course! What is it!?”

“No need for the ‘Miss’ when speaking to me. I’m really not that much older than you, you know.”

“Aah! Sorry, sorry! I’ll make sure not to do it anymore!” She squeaked. Most of their conversation up to that point had been some form of that. Neither of them really meant it, of course. Olwen never meant to sound so prickly, and Tine never meant to come off as too soft-hearted. Old habits die hard, it seemed.

As they traveled, the Yied was left in the distance, and the pine-heavy forests of Silesse seemed to appear thicker and thicker. Matching her stallion’s pace to her traveling partners, she glanced up at the forest ahead of them. “Castle Zaxon should be on us soon enough. How long did you want to stay?”

“Well, it would be in our best interest to make it to the capital as quickly as we can…” Tine tapped a finger to her chin in thought. “Buuuut… It would be useful to make sure the weather won’t end up with us walking right into a snow storm.”

“That’s a good line of thought. Better safe than sorry in the cold.”

As they continued closer to the border, the sun began to dip beneath the treeline. Still, they continued on, until the soft light spilling over the side of a forts’ walls made its way into their sight. Castle Zaxon was upon them. Rather than try and sort things out in a complicated matter, they set about to spend the night at a church and inquire about the weather in the morning, as it seemed anyone who would have been of help would have turned in for the evening.

“Say, Olwen?” Tine glanced over as she put a bit of jam onto the bread that one of the priests in the church had offered them.

“...What is it?”

“Are you sure that you’re okay sticking by me? I mean, it’s a long and boring journey and you don’t really get anything from it…”

“I would not have agreed to your brother’s request to help you if I hadn’t thought it wasn’t worth watching over you.”

“But what about Fred? Is he able to handle both your and his share of the work with you out here?” 

“Oh, well…” She looked at Tine in a bit of surprise. Not that she thought she was unintelligent, but she seemed to pay more attention than Olwen gave her credit for. “He said he would be fine but I asked Amalda to make sure he stays in line. Can’t trust him not to slack off if I’m not around.”

It was a joke, mostly, since she knew Fred was very capable but her hard working attitude did cause her to worry a bit.

“Geez, I know what you mean!” Tine kicked her legs out in annoyance, pouting. “Arthur is always super focused but it is real difficult to tell what he is even thinking about since he never talks about it!”

“Is that why you wanted to come?” 

“No. Well, only slightly. There were some pegasus knights who were helping us re-work Friege after the war, but some of the nobles of Silesse said Frieges weren’t to be trusted even with their new ruler in charge… I wanted to go to request their permission for cooperation just a little while longer…”

“That… is very big of you, Tine.” Olwen spoke quietly, a soft smile finding its way into her words. “Don’t you think that is something that Seliph should handle…?”

“He has to deal with enough… Besides, I get the feeling they have had enough of the rulers of Grannvale knocking at their door.”

“I suppose that is fair. When Arthur inquired me about helping you, he simply mentioned that is was related to something diplomatic. I figured a very direct answer would not come to me by him.”

“That sounds like him alright!” Tine huffed. Olwen glanced at her, and saw before her someone who had been cast a horrible lot in life and was unsure of where to go from here, eyes heavy with worry. 

“Well, I think that you are doing a great job.”

“A great job? Doing what?”

“Doing… the best you can?”

The response teased a laugh out of the younger mage and she lit up at the sort-of compliment. The night was chilly and heavy winds rattled the structure of the church. Olwen excused herself to make sure their horses would be well through the rest of the night, but when she returned inside she was surprised to find that Tine had drifted off into sleep already. Not wanting to wake her, she simply (and gently) placed her traveling cloak atop the sleeping mage. 

By the time the morning sun crawled up above the trees, the gentle light had already quashed out some of the biting cold. It didn’t eat it completely, and the pair seemed to already be missing the humid winds coming off the desert as they passed by it. Still, they had things that needed doing, so out into the cold it was. While Tine cheerfully went to inquire about the weather, Olwen took to preparing the horses for the day. As she waited, she lifted her head and blew out, watching the tiny, cold breath clouds.

Seemingly out of nowhere, something soft and fluffy was thrust into her face. She glanced down to a smiling Tine, holding out a large, fuzzy scarf. “You seemed to be cold, um, so I wanted you to wear this. Maybe it won’t do much, but…”

“Oh. This is wonderful, thank you so much.” Olwen rubbed a finger over the material, though she was wearing gloves so it didn’t feel like much, and tightly wrapped it around her neck. “What did they say about the weather?”

“Ah… It will be clear for a while, but should snow a little bit in a few days time.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad… We can make good time if that is the case. Is there anything else you want to do before we head off?”

“I… don’t think so. Let’s go!” Tine was helped up onto her stallion, and then Olwen settled herself into her saddle, and off they traveled, thanking the members of the church once more as they passed by. The road to the capital was wide and empty. Cold wind rolled off the mountains on one side of them to the ocean on the other. Things weren’t so bad though - there weren’t many other travelers for them to run into.

Emboldened by their now closer relationship, Tine would fill the time up by asking questions to Olwen to try to understand her better. For example… Did she prefer cats or dogs? (Cats) What was her favorite color? (Purple) And perhaps most importantly of all, was she having fun traveling with Tine? (An all-too-quick yes)

After a bit of traveling from Zaxon, a barn stood before them amongst the trees. Though the two mages circled the area a bit, there didn’t seem to be anyone around. With a peek inside of it, it seemed to be empty and unvisited for quite some time.

“By the look of the sky, we may have to make this our home for the night.” Olwen squinted up to the quickly graying clouds above. “As fun as sleeping outside is.”

“Brr! I don’t want to get caught in the cold!” Tine quickly agreed and they shut the barn doors behind them as tightly as possible. “Too bad there isn’t a tome that wards off the cold.”

“If only life were so simple.” With a sigh, Olwen wrapped herself in one of their blankets, looking up at the broken windows of the loft above them. “Probably gonna be a long night.”

Thankfully, it seemed as if the gods were holding out for them, and the poor weather didn’t start until after they had settled in for the evening. The barn was hardly any different by the time it stopped snowing, save for a small pile of snow that quickly froze over. The wind caused the structure of it to creak, however, and woke Olwen in the morning. Tine was nowhere around. Hearing a noise outside and figuring that’s who it was, she tiredly rose and went to poke around to see. As she stepped outside, however, a snowball nailed her in the face. 

“Oh, geez! I didn’t mean to throw it so hard! Are you okay? I’m, ah… I’m sorry!” Tine frowned and hid her face in her hands, peeking out between her fingers.

“You… You’re gonna pay for that, you know?” Olwen grumbled but bent down to scoop up a handful of snow, a playful grin on her face. “That was not very noble of you, catching me off guard!”

Old habits die hard.

“Waaah! Hey! Don’t throw so many at once! That’s not fair!” With a squeak, Tine ducked behind a nearby tree for cover, as Olwen launched her snowy offensive in retaliation. 

Perhaps it would seem that their trip to the capital was going to be delayed for another day.

**Author's Note:**

> my nagamas gift for jpegurl over on tumblr! i hope you liked this! all of your prompts were very good but i had fun bouncing these two off one another! i bet arthur totally planned this on purpose!
> 
> re: translation - i usually switch between multiple variants of names/places but i went with as official as i could here for ease of understanding!
> 
> i hope you have a great, very happy nagamas ! :)


End file.
